


Exhale. Inhale. Hold. Exhale again.

by AndWeMutate



Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse), Devil May Cry
Genre: Devil May Cry 5 Spoilers, Established Relationship, Letters, M/M, Mentions of Nero, Post DMC5, Spoilers - Devil May Cry 5, mentions of Vergil - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-06
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2020-01-05 23:28:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18376265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndWeMutate/pseuds/AndWeMutate
Summary: SPOILERS FOR THE END OF DEVIL MAY CRY 5!"Leon fought against the overwhelming sense of sadness as part of him longed for anger instead. They were both irrational emotions but anger didn’t make him feel as hollow. He wanted so badly to be angry at the way this was but he couldn’t. Leon couldn’t be mad at the man he loved for doing what he felt was right. Instead, he chose sadness, as frustrating as it was, as vacant as it made him feel."After not hearing from Dante for a while, Leon goes to Devil May Cry to look for answers.





	Exhale. Inhale. Hold. Exhale again.

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd as usual, so excuse any glaring errors. After beating DMC5, I missed this ship a little too much so decided to do something about it.

“Dante?!” Leon hadn’t meant to raise his voice, hadn’t meant to yell. When he pushed open the door of Devil May Cry, out of breath and desperate for answers, the volume of his voice was his very last concern. A quick look around the empty space offered no answers and the lack of verbal response did nothing for the small hint of dread that was building within the agent. Something was wrong.

“Dante?” Leon called into the vast emptiness of the office and received no reply once again. It was unnerving. He took a few cautious steps inward, eyes unsteady and darting from left to right. No sign of disturbance, no sign of forced entry. Everything was still, where it should be. It became increasingly more difficult not jumping to conclusions. It didn’t feel right.

He advanced further at a slower pace, attempting to calm his rampaging heart. Stopping at the desk in front of him, he uneasily shifted his weight from foot to foot. “Where the hell are you?” Leon asked, this time quietly and mostly to himself. He sighed and hung his head, placing his palms flat against the desk’s smooth surface. Fanning his fingers out slightly, the pinky of his right hand brushed against something. The agent lifted his eyes and found his gaze focused on an envelope, a very unassuming and slightly out of place envelope. There’s a sudden flutter at his very core and unsettlingly, it fit perfectly in place in this very moment.

“He left that for you,” a voice called from the darkness in front of him. It took everything in Leon not to instinctively draw his gun. Instead, he cautiously looked away from the curious envelope. The voice sounded familiar, but he remained cautiously distrustful until he saw a face to go along with the voice.

Leon held his breath as he watched a figure come into focus. Moving through the darkness and into view, it offered a name to the voice it had been detached from. “Trish…” Leon exhaled, his expression softening just a bit. A sense of relief washed over him.

Trish entered the room with a gentle sway of her hips, the soft clicking of her heels almost rhythmic. Coming to rest her hand on the opposite edge of the desk, she offered the agent a ghost of a smile. “Hey, Leon,” she hummed. They’d met early on in Leon and Dante’s relationship and he remembered being in awe of her. She had a presence that demanded to be acknowledged and yet, she spoke quietly, evenly, frankly. She hid nothing and Leon appreciated that. She also somehow managed to keep Dante in check and he’d be lying if he said that didn’t impress him more than a little.

While Leon would have liked to exchange pleasantries and simply shoot the breeze, a question continued to scratch and claw at him. It was persistent, unyielding. “Trish, not that I’m not happy to see you, but…” Leon’s voice trailed off and Trish nodded. She understood. She knew why Leon was here.

She repeated her earlier statement, “He left that for you.” Trish angled her chin towards the envelope on the desk. Watching his expression begin to peel and crack, concern becoming evident, she sighed and said softly, “What you want to know will be in there, I’m sure.”

He hadn’t realized that he’d been holding his breath. Leon exhaled unsteadily and returned his focus to the envelope sitting there still, just as unassumingly, just as out of place as before. It quietly taunted him, aware of what Leon wanted to know, aware of his hesitance.

After what felt like days, the agent steeled himself and took the envelope into his hands. He willed himself to remain calm, begged his heart to stop trying to burst from his chest. The pad of his thumb smoothed over the front of the envelope and a chill ran from the base of his spine upwards. He was holding his breath again but he was acutely aware of it this time.

Exhale. Inhale. Hold. Exhale again.

Carefully, he opened the envelope. He wasn’t quite sure what to expect. What was he about to read? What was he about to see?

He hadn’t quite expected a greeting card.

At first, it seemed a tad underwhelming, a humble greeting card being the cause of Leon’s heart pounding in his ears. It took the agent a few seconds to actually acknowledge what the card said, rather than question its existence. Its loud orange border caught Leon’s attention first. Dead center, bold text, it read, ‘I’d be lost without you,’ in alternative fonts and colors and it made him smile. He could almost hear the words slipping from Dante’s lips in a moment of intimacy, wandering hands and a feverish air surrounding them. He felt a warmth spread through his chest, consuming him like ink in water.

He maybe lingered on the sentiments on the card’s face for a few seconds too long. Leon flipped the card open and the first words on the inside forced a chuckle to leave the agent abruptly, unexpectedly. ‘And horny,’ the card proclaimed, ‘Lost and horny.’ Leon snickered, the sound blossoming into a laugh that lasted a little longer and escalated in volume a little more than he intended. He could hear Dante say that too. He could hear it so clearly, the tone, the cadence of his voice. Leon could hear it perfectly.

Beneath the message was a large D, signed in black ink. Once the laugher had subsided, Leon brushed his fingertips along the simplified signature, a fondness in his smile. In those moments of thought, the agent hadn’t noticed a paperclip at the bottom corner of the card. Eyebrow cocked, Leon turned the card over to see a few sheets of paper neatly folded and clipped to the back of the card. A sense of urgency overtook him as he unclipped the paper and set the card down. Now, he held the paper in his hands and his heart was racing again.

Exhale. Inhale. Hold. Exhale again.

The paper unfolded willingly, too easily. Leon’s heart skipped a beat or two. What was barren when folded bloomed into a plane covered in black inked words. The agent struggled not to allow his eyes to lunge forward and skim ahead. Instead, as all things did, he’d start at the beginning.

_Leon,_

_Hey, babe. Like the card? I’ve always been the sentimental type, you know. Saw it and thought of you. Because it’s true. Too damn true._

_Something’s come up, something big and I don’t think I’ll be around for a little while. There’s a big, dumb part of me that wants to put down this pen and go to you to explain, but you and I both know damn well what you do to me. I’d never leave. Sometimes that’s not too big a problem but there’s too much at stake this time. If I saw you before this or even just heard your voice, shit would have went sideways too fast. I had to do this, but I’m still sorry it had to be this way._

_My brother came back. Vergil. I told you about him, remember? He came back and screwed up some things pretty damn bad and somehow, somewhere along the line, had a kid (Nero. That kid. Yeah. His kid. Always had a hunch but we know for sure now. We’re uncles!) Still have to get the full story on that one. He’s not getting away that easy._

_Anyway, there’s a lot of red paint here but the short of it is, or the greatest hits, is that I have to do something about it. I’m running out of time here. Where Vergil goes, I gotta go too, to make sure he stays out of trouble this time. There can’t be a next time. Has to be this time. Plus, what kind of little brother would I be if I keep letting my big brother screw shit up?_

_I know this isn’t enough and I’m sorry about that, babe, I am. Ask Trish. I’m sure she’ll fill you in a little. Maybe find the kid too. Always needs an excuse to run his mouth. But yeah, I don’t know when I’ll be back. I feel like a jackass for not saying this to your face but I hope you’ll forgive me for that. I feel like I’ll be asking you to forgive a lot of things in the near future. I don’t expect you (or that perfect ass of yours) to wait up for me but I hope you will. When I’m back, you’ll be the first to know, that I can promise you. And when I’m back, I’ll make this up to you. I will. I just gotta do this first._

_I love you, Leon, more than anything. You’ve stuck around through so much of my bullshit, good, bad and ugly, and I know I’m asking you to do it again but...yeah. You make me a selfish man, Leon Kennedy._

_I gotta go. I’ll see you soon._

__\- D_ _

Leon exhaled, gripping the letter. His chest felt tight and his head spun. Leaning against the edge of the desk, he allowed himself a few moments to asses the situation and collect his thoughts. He could feel Trish’s eyes scanning his face, looking for some sort of reaction but he needed these few moments to take all of it in. It was a lot of process and yet, there wasn’t enough information, nowhere near enough. He had so many questions without answers. Too many. Leon fought against the overwhelming sense of sadness as part of him longed for anger instead. They were both irrational emotions but anger didn’t make him feel as hollow. He wanted so badly to be angry at the way this was but he couldn’t. Leon couldn’t be mad at the man he loved for doing what he felt was right. Instead, he chose sadness, as frustrating as it was, as vacant as it made him feel.

He sighed and looked up to see Trish still eyeing him sympathetically. She knew what had happened and she knew it’d sting a little less coming from Dante, even if it was indirectly. She tilted her head and offered the agent a sad sort of smile. “Get your answers?”

“Yes and no,” Leon replied, holding the letter in one hand and raking his fingers through his hair with the other. “But, it has to be enough, I guess.”

She placed a hand on Leon’s shoulder. “If you need anything, work wise or whatever else, we got you,” Trish said.

“I appreciate that,” Leon hummed softly. There was a thoughtful pause, a few quiet moments before the agent stumbled over the words he wished he hadn’t. “He’ll be back.” Inhale. Exhale. “Right?”

Trish gave Leon’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “Dante, as long as I’ve known him, has always been dramatic,” she teased, knowing full well Leon knew the very same thing by the way the corner of his mouth twitched, hinting at a smile. “I wouldn’t worry too much. After a job, he comes home. He’s been pretty consistent with that. Plus,” Trish released his shoulder and shifted, moving to stand in front of Leon, “I’m pretty sure he knows you’re worth coming back for.”

Her statement earned a chuckle from the agent. He met her gaze and offered her a small smile in return. “I know he’s worth waiting for,” Leon said quietly.

He spent a little while longer within Devil May Cry, Trish offering him a drink and doing her best to fill in the gaps Dante left in his letter. It was a lot to go through, a hard pill to swallow, but he took it in stride. The thing he took away from their conversation was the cruel reality of the situation; he had no idea when he’d see Dante again.

He’d lost a lot of people in his life, friends and foes alike, but he knew Dante was someone he wasn’t willing to lose. Harder and faster, he’d fight to keep what they’d found. He refused to let this particular series of events dictate the rest of their lives. While his chest ached relentlessly and his head continued to spin with no signs of stopping, Leon willed himself to do the only thing he could do right now.

Exhale. Inhale. Hold. Exhale again.

**Author's Note:**

> I was going through old likes on Tumblr and I came across the post for this exact greeting card that I'd fav'd from one of my best friends (and my Leon forever), shinimegami. I was having a lot of emotions post beating DMC5 so...whoops. Big whoops.


End file.
